


auroras and sad prose

by frogentity



Category: Taylor Swift (Musician), august - Taylor Swift (Song), betty - Taylor Swift (Song), cardigan - Taylor Swift (Song), folklore - Taylor Swift (Album), gaylor - Fandom
Genre: F/F, Folklore Album, Gaylor Swift, I hate James, folklore love triangle
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-22
Updated: 2020-11-22
Packaged: 2021-03-10 03:15:02
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,069
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27666650
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/frogentity/pseuds/frogentity
Summary: in which betty discovers that she is, in fact, too good for james
Relationships: august/james, betty/august, betty/james
Comments: 1
Kudos: 14





	auroras and sad prose

August is sitting in a dusty classroom, trying to listen to her biology teacher explain the phospholipid bilayer, thinking of James.

James, and her long silky hair that fell down her back and flew every which way in the summer wind. James, and her turtlenecks and Levis, and her sharp eyeliner.

James, and her slender, expert hands.

August almost wants to text, or call, or do anything to make James pay attention to her. Hell, she would even run out of her classroom and find James if it meant an ounce of reciprocated interest. It’s the first day of August’s junior year (aka the first day of James’s senior year) and things have been weird between the two of them lately.

Not that things were ever exactly _normal_ between them.

James always belonged to Betty.

August glances across the classroom at Betty, who’s scribbling notes into her spiral notebook. _Of course Betty’s taking notes,_ August scoffs to herself, _even though no one else in the room is._ Betty is the girl who edits everyone’s essays for them. Her sweet disposition, perpetual armful of books, and cream cardigan that she wears almost all the time make August want to vomit.

With Betty’s rosy cheeks, sandy blonde curls and soft frame, August almost understands why James is so annoyingly in love with her. 

It’s probably why August hates her so much.

A quick glance at the clock reveals that school’s over in a minute, and August grabs her phone and types out a quick text to James. 

August: can you meet me behind the mall? i need to talk to you

It’s an anxious thirty seconds that August spends biting her nails before James finally responds. 

James: august we can’t keep doing this.

Ten more seconds pass.

James: but yes

James: one more time

August breathes a sigh of relief, and then glances around out of paranoia.

August: thank you <3 

August: seriously

August: it’ll be quick

When the bell rings, August gathers her school supplies —the cheap ones that her mother finds at the Dollar Tree’s clearance aisle— and stuffs them into her old yellow backpack. She stands, making her way out of the classroom, glancing at her phone again to make sure she didn’t misread anything or send anything stupid, when she bumps face-first into someone.

And when August’s head whips up to see who she bumped into, she immediately blushes.

Betty, pretty Betty who belongs to James, is staring at her with the most curious expression.August blushes even harder. “Sorry,” she mumbles, quickly angling her phone screen away from Betty and hurrying out of the room before she can say anything that would incriminate her or James. 

Out behind the mall, surrounded by old oaks and wisteria and dead leaves, August scans the parking lot for any sign of James’s pickup truck. _It used to be my grandfather’s_ , James had said with a telltale hint of vulnerability in her eyes. And August had just nodded, because she knew how much James’s grandfather had meant to her. 

James finally arrives, albeit twenty minutes late, pulling to a stop besides August’s secondhand Nissan. “Get in,” she hisses, brown eyes flashing. “I don’t want anyone to see us.”

August obliges, climbing out of her car and into the passenger seat of James’s.

She inhales James’s scent, something like sandalwood and old leather and gasoline, and feels her heart surge, because she doesn’t know if she’s ever been in love like this, and she doesn’t know if she’ll ever be able to feel what she feels with James with anyone else.

Before saying anything, August leans in for a kiss, letting herself savor James’s soft lips. “Hi,” she whispers, pulling away.

James tucks a brown lock of August’s stray hair behind her ear and smiles the slightest smile that August has ever seen. “Hi.” Then she swallows, hard. “What’s going on?”

August stares out the driver’s window at the groves of trees and the cloudless sky. “I just…” she shrugs. “I just wanted to see you.”

James turns away, so that her back is to August, and buries her head in her hands. “God, August. You scared me. I thought you were gonna say that someone saw us, or…”

August shakes her head. “No. We’ve been so careful.”

James groans. “August, I don’t want…”

Now it’s August’s turn to turn away. “I know.”

“What?”

“I know.”

“August, that’s not fair.”

August feels her eyes begin to fill up with tears, and she quickly blinks them back, ignoring the quiver of her chin. “It’s not like we ever had a shot in a million years.”

“I don’t know what to tell you.”

August thinks back to her interaction with Betty today— the way that Betty seemed to have a knowing look in her eyes, like she knew something about August that August didn’t even know about herself.

“I have biology with Betty,” August blurts. “And I get it. I get that she’s so smart, and kind, and that she’s so _fucking_ beautiful, and I get why you can’t help but be in love with her.”

James turns back to August, and her face is expressionless, void of any emotion.

August wants to slap her.

James starts to talk. “I’m sorry. August, none of this is your fault. I’m shitty. I’m shitty to you and I’m shitty to Betty. But—“

“But you love her,” August finishes.

James nods, swallowing hard. “I do.”

“Not me.”

James looks away again and bites her lip, and August wants nothing more than to kiss her. Even with how badly it hurts, August still wants to love James until she exhausts every supply of love in the world.

“So this is it,” August says. 

James places a hand on August’s chin and tilts her head up. “You’ll find somebody who can treat you better than me.”

“God, that is such bullshit.” August can’t believe that she just said that out loud, and yet she continues. “So you know that you’re a manipulative piece of shit, and you just… you just accept it? You hurt me, and now you’re going to hurt Betty. I’m sure you already have. You’d better hope that no one saw us, because if anyone knows about what happened between us this summer, you won’t have Betty either.”

James is cold when she says “August, it’s time for you to get out of my car.”


End file.
